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Dane Jackson a dominant pro kayaker at age 18

Dane Jackson spins to second place at the FIBArk freestyle kayak contest Saturday in Salida as his father, legendary kayaker Eric Jackson, looks on. Dane, 18, is storming the professional level of freestyle kayaking. (Jason Blevins, The Denver Post)

SALIDA — It seems only a few years ago that Dane Jackson spent most of the FIBArk river festival playing with miniature toy boats in the trickle next to Salida's whitewater park.

While professional freestyle kayakers like his father, Eric Jackson, competed before hundreds of spectators on the banks of the Arkansas River, Dane would be knee deep in the ditch, testing his hand-sculpted foam kayaks with a crew of pals.

"I remember my favorite thing about coming to FIBArk was the skatepark and the foam boating. I wasn't really focusing on the kayaking then," said the 18-year-old, who has spent his life traveling the world with his mom, father and sister as the family competed in dozens of whitewater kayaking contests.

After an extraordinary year in which Dane won nearly every junior-level kayaking competition he entered — culminating with a junior world title and three gold medals in three disciplines at the 2011 freestyle kayak world championships — he now is storming the professional ranks, knocking veterans like his father down a step on the podium.

In his first professional contests this season, Dane has harvested two golds, two silvers and a bronze.

"Most people would say, 'Oh, Dane Jackson is here, I guess there's only two spots left on the podium,' " said Eric Jackson, the Olympic paddler and kayaking pioneer whose Jackson Kayaks are ubiquitous features in the world's growing stable of whitewater parks. "But know there are plenty of people out there who definitely don't want him to win."

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People such as Dustin Urban, Stephen Wright, Clay Wright and, yes, even his father. "I don't have any intention of letting him win everything, that's for sure," Jackson said.

Urban knocked Dane from the lead in Saturday's FIBArk throwdown at the Salida whitewater park. In a tight finals contest with the biggest names in freestyle kayaking, Urban nailed uncommon moves to notch a 1,310-point score that bumped the young Jackson's impressive 1,220 to second-best. It was one of the best performances ever for the father of two from Buena Vista.

Still, the veteran Urban knows his podium time could be fading as the kayaking prodigy comes of age and gets comfortable with professional competition. "If he has his best ride, he can't be beat. When he goes off, it's just outrageous," said Urban, who paddles a Jackson kayak. "He's got a level of precision that is phenomenal. In a couple seasons, he could be untouchable."

The hype behind Dane's stomp into the top rankings — moving smoothly from top junior to top pro on his 18th birthday — may be rattling the teenager accustomed to always winning. In two contests this season, he failed to make finals for the first time in several years.

"Going into this season, if you had asked me, I didn't think he was capable of not being on all the time," said Eric Jackson, who took third behind his son Saturday with a stout ride that earned him 1,160 points. "He may be having a bit of adjustment issue. I think he's more nervous about doing well than he ever was. Give him time. By this time next year, he'll be smiling on the way into the hole and not worrying. When he does that, he's really hard to beat."

Dane will be one of six kayakers from six continents to paddle in the London whitewater park during the Olympic Games in August. The televised demonstration will elevate freestyle kayaking's push to make the 2016 Olympics.

"It's been our goal for the last few years to get freestyle into the Olympics and hopefully the Olympic demo will help with that," Dane said.

Even his competitors acknowledge that Dane is likely the best paddler to represent freestyle kayaking's worthiness of the Olympic stage.

"He's our spark, no question," said his father. "He invents new ways to do things. There's a whole group of us doing certain moves in ways he figured out, invented and perfected. He's at the forefront and pushing the sport along right now."

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